Illustrations and Artwork

Illustration of Meadow-weed, 1898

As much as Clifton Johnson was a photographer, he was equally an illustrator. He predominantly used pen and ink drawings to provide illustrations to his many books and articles. He also completed works in ink wash, gouache, and pencil. Items in the collection include drawings, mockups, book dummies, and some printers proofs. Some of the illustrations are based on photographs by Johnson.

The artwork is particularly strong in landscapes of western Massachusetts; rural villages and people of England, Ireland, Scotland, and France; drawings of 18th and 19th century household utensils and objects; and drawings of children or for children's stories.

Watercolor landscape

As an illustrator, Johnson worked primarily in black and white; as a painter, he made good use of color. The thirteen oil paintings and one watercolor in the collection, all of landscapes, demonstrate Johnson's ability to master many different media.